Last Swim
Sasha Nathwani’s British coming-of-age drama highlights two shining new talents.
Image courtesy of Vertigo Releasing.
Last Swim won two awards at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival and it is a work that gives us two names that we will want to follow. The first is that of Sasha Nathwani who directed it and also wrote the screenplay with Helen Simmons. He was born in London but is of mixed ancestry, his mother being Iranian and his father Indian, and this is his first feature following on from shorts and music videos. It proves him to be a filmmaker of huge potential. The other name to be noted is that of Deba Hekmat and she plays the central role here, that of Ziba who is Iranian/British and in her late teens. Hekmat previously appeared in 2023’s Hoard but there she had only a supporting part and this is the film that fully confirms her exceptional promise.
In some respects, Last Swim can be thought of a modest effort. It was shot in London and portrays the events of a single summer day when four friends decide to take time out together immediately following the announcement of their A-level results. It is also the day when a meteor shower is due to take place so they plan to watch that in the evening from Primrose Hill after roaming around such areas as Portobello, Hampstead Heath and Bishops Avenue. The film simply accompanies these youngsters as they set out and are joined by one other who is just a shade older. He is Malcolm played by Denzel Baidoo and the close friends of Ziba who had been invited along to follow her itinerary are Tara (Lydia Fleming), Shea (Solly McLeod) and Merf (Jay Lycurgo).
We do meet the mothers of Ziba and Malcolm (Narges Rashidi and Michelle Greenidge) but the five youngsters are very much the centre of the film. Furthermore, rather than inventing a detailed story in which they will feature, Last Swim is instead very much a piece focused on two elements of a contrasted kind which are here brought together: on the one hand, the film relishes the energy of youth and on the other it makes us aware of the fragility of life given that death is always a possible event at any time and at any age. In this instance it seems more than just possible. Although a pre-credit sequence has established the fact that Ziba is talented and is set to go to University College London to read astrophysics, the scenes that immediately follow the credits establish the fact that unknown to her friends Ziba has a serious medical condition and quite soon we realise that it is cancer. This is the secret shadow that hangs over this seemingly carefree day of youthful enjoyment and, given the title that the film bears, we may well wonder if Ziba has planned it as a day of closure, a finale to her life. Inevitably much less severe but also indicative of life's problems is the fact that Malcolm, who had seriously devoted himself to football and whose family had gone all out to support him, has just learnt that he has been sacked from the club where he had been part of a youth training programme. Consequently, he is recognising that years of effort have been wasted and that his future has suddenly become uncertain.
Since Ziba's friends are unaware of her situation, making it fully apparent to the audience involves the inclusion of a few brief flashbacks which are rather forcibly inserted although in general Sasha Nathwani directs with great assurance. However, the major virtues of the film are not technical ones. Much of the appeal of Last Swim is to be found in the way in which the young players capture not only their individual characters but the bond of unity that links them. Among the supporting cast Denzel Baidoo is a very telling presence and he helps to make the rapport that is established between him and Ziba feel real rather than an element contrived to give the film a romantic thread. But, good as Baidoo and the others are, it is Deba Hekmat who in herself provides the film’s greatest source of strength. Ziba is certainly the main character but it is the star quality that Hekmat shows, her natural ability to shine, that defines her contribution. She is properly part of the ensemble cast but is nevertheless patently the star of this film.
The narrative may be rather slight but Last Swim does offer a philosophy of life by stressing the need to appreciate every moment when nothing about life is permanent and it does lead to a final section that is not without its surprises. That doesn't make it a major work, but it has a second notable strength and that derives from the warmth of feeling with which Nathwani views his central characters. That too is something quite special and it is this and what Deba Hekmat brings to the film that make Last Swim a first feature that is truly memorable.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Deba Hekmat, Denzel Baidoo, Lydia Fleming, Solly McLeod, Jay Lycurgo, Narges Rashidi, Michelle Greenidge, Dagmar Agyei-Gyan, Anil Desai, Alex Blake, Michael Karim, Zehra Browne.
Dir Sasha Nathwani, Pro Campbell Benton, Bert Hamelinck, Nisha Mullea, Sorcha Shepherd, Helen Simmons and James Isilay, Screenplay Sasha Nathwani and Helen Simmons, Ph Olban Collardy, Pro Des Julija Fricsone Gavriss, Ed Stephen Dunne, Music Federico Albanese, Costumes Natalie Caroline Wilkins.
Screencrib/A Caviar and Pablo & Zeus production-Vertigo Releasing.
96 mins. UK. 2024. UK Rel: 4 April 2025. Cert. 15.
